Facebook photo albums go multimedia

June 2, 2017
Facebook’s photo albums have been revamped with new features, TechCrunch reports, including the ability to add videos, text posts, and check-ins to albums; exhibit “featured” albums on your profile; easily add friends as contributors to albums; and follow friends’ albums to be notified when they’re updated.

These features are now available in Facebook’s Android app and will roll out to iOS soon.

While fans’ behaviors and purchasing habits differ from the mainstream, marketers might not be capitalizing to the fullest on these engaged segments. Big pop culture buffs seem especially receptive to personalized ads online, suggesting new opportunities for stronger targeted efforts as companies plan around key push times like the summer or back-to-school seasons.

What marketers should know about Facebook user engagement in 2017

March 7, 2017

Particularly when facing stiff competition from competitors like Snapchat, it’s critical for Facebook to do whatever it can to not only encourage its users to publish content, but also to like, comment and share content as frequently as they’re willing to.

While Facebook presented a high-level, rosy summary of engagement when discussing results from the 2016 fiscal year, we felt that the overview it offered was incomplete. In an effort to help marketers understand how they can most effectively reach audiences in 2017, our team set out to shed more light on the current state of Facebook engagement.

Are Brands Spending Too Much Money on the Wrong Content?

March 3, 2017

One central theme running through the content marketing sessions at the Social Media Week conference this week in New York can be summed up with a question: Are brands spending too much money on the wrong content?

It’s a question that must keep many a brand marketer up at night. And it’s not easily answered.

Facebook Has a Trump Problem

February 14, 2017

I’ve recently been personally feeling like Facebook is becoming less and less tolerable given the post-election climate. Not that I enjoyed the screaming back and forth from the 2008 or 2012 elections, but after the 2016 election, things didn’t seem to settle down like they had in the past.

As I heard one person say, I didn’t reconnect with old high-school friends because I think they have insightful political thoughts. Show me pictures of your kids, tell me you won the over-40 flag football city championship, but incessant political rants? No thanks.

New Report Shows Personal Updates Still Declining on Facebook, but Engagement Rising

February 14, 2017

In April last year, a report published by The Information highlighted a rising problem at Facebook – people weren’t sharing as many personal updates as they used to.

Data obtained by The Information suggested the sharing of personal posts – people’s own thoughts and photos – declined by 21% between mid-2014 and mid-2015, which inspired Facebook to put together a team to tackle what they’d labeled “context collapse“, with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg calling on staff to come up with new ways to inspire more personal sharing.

Facebook Users Posted A Third Less Content in 2016 than 2015

February 14, 2017

Looking through 25 million user-generated Facebook posts, as social marketers Mavrck have done, some interesting – and worrying – trends emerge. The first one that jumped out was a further – and accelerating it seems -double-digit decline regarding original content posted by regular Facebook users – 29.49% to be exact. The average Facebook users is less personally engaged with the platform than the year before – this context crisis is not new but it does not appear to be getting better either.

Every marketer understands the impact of engaging customers on Facebook but lacks the inability to sustain interest through organic and sponsored posts. Conversely, Facebook users are responding more to News Feeds compared to paid marketing content. As consumers are increasingly adopting ad blockers to keep away disruptive ads from spoiling their experiences, marketers have begun to acknowledge the power of Facebook marketing as a key driver in generating consumer engagement, especially in the ‘original content’ category. That’s exactly what Mavrck’s latest report on User-Generated Content intends to showcase through its industry-benchmarking insights on Facebook marketing.

Mavrck, the leading micro-influencer marketing, announced the release of “Facebook User-Generated Content (UGC) Benchmark Report”, a study that compares how engagement levels with both brand-generated posts and user-generated posts changed over the course of 2016.

UGC Is Performing Better than Brand Posts on Facebook

February 13, 2017

An uptick in political conversation isn’t the only thing changing Facebook.

Facebook made headlines last year when it revealed that it was running out of advertising space in its news feed. Marketers have felt the effects of that decline, in the forms of diminishing organic search returns and pricier ads on the social network. Still, there may be a silver lining here in the relative performance of user-generated content (UGC).

Report: Facebook activity dwindles in 2016, influencer marketing is up

February 13, 2017

Influencer marketing platform Mavrck has published a many informative statistics for marketers who are using Facebook to speak to their audiences, particularly with how the algorithm has affected user engagement with branded content and general user posting behavior. Using Mavrck’s dataset, which culled data 25 million Facebook posts, they’ve been able to learn quite a lot of what we can expect in the future.

Mavrck and Bazaarvoice Partner to Enhance Syndication of Consumer-generated Content

November 8, 2016

Boston: Mavrck, the influencer marketing platform trusted by consumer brands to harness the power of their most influential customers, today announced a partnership with Bazaarvoice, who is creating the smartest network that connects more than one-half billion consumers monthly to thousands of retailers and brands. Under the Bazaarvoice Content Acquisition Partner program, brands will be able to leverage Mavrck’s technology to generate additional shopper reviews and consumer content across major social networks, and distribute this content through the Bazaarvoice syndication engine.

“Many of today’s biggest brands already use the Bazaarvoice Curations and Conversations solutions for collecting customer conversations about what they’re buying, and promoting the positive shopper feedback to increase sales and build brand trust,” said Lyle Stevens, co-founder and CEO of Mavrck. “Mavrck will enhance Bazaarvoice’s already robust platform capabilities, enabling these brands to generate thousands of authentic reviews and social content from the networks of their most influential shoppers.”

“Mavrck allows brands to harness word-of-mouth marketing at scale by helping them tap into their most valuable marketing asset – existing customers with social influence,” said Lyle Stevens, co-founder and CEO of Mavrck. “Our patented influencer activation engine gives marketers using Adobe Audience Manager new capabilities for both discovering who their most influential customers are, and activating these customers to distribute content and drive conversions across four major social networks.”

September 15, 2016

Influence has traditionally been the province of the powerful – back in the Middle Ages, the word meant “emanation from the stars that acts upon one’s character and destiny.”

In modern times, influence often emanates from stars of a different sort – celebrities from the big screen and the playing field who lend their names to brands to endorse products.

But how strong is their influence, really? Increasingly, brands have been asking that question, and many are turning away from expensive celebrity endorsements to court the influence of “microinfluencers” instead.

Why Have B2B Brands Fallen Behind on Social Media?

September 7, 2016

While B2C marketers don’t need such a targeted approach to draw new business—anyone can enjoy a Coke or crave KFC—B2B marketers can’t take the same top-of-the-funnel strategy.

Take a look at 2016’s most influential brands on Facebook, according to Mavrck: Starbucks, Coca-Cola, MTV and Samsung Mobile top the charts, followed by brands like KFC, Nike and Target. What do these companies have in common? They’re all business-to-consumer.

4 Ways to Influence Social Influencers

September 5, 2016

In an age of promotional clutter, go the extra mile to excite the influential people who are dedicated to your brand.

Before kicking off a season filled with holiday-themed display ads, email campaigns and PR stunts, marketers have an opportunity to work on a less visible, yet equally important effort for Q4 success: nurturing customer loyalty.

Building campaigns that are designed to keep shoppers coming back is certainly nothing new for marketers. But when it comes to leveraging effective marketing tactics for getting products or services in front of prospective buyers, engaging loyal followers who also have influence over their friends’ and families’ purchasing decisions is arguably more important than ever before.

5 Insights That Shed Light on the Most Effective Social Marketing Tactics

August 30, 2016

Marketers are all too aware of the increase in ad blockers’ popularity over the last two years, and many have turned to social media as an alternative channel for getting in front of their target customers.

As marketers begin preparing for the last and often most important quarter of their companies’ fiscal years, we set out to answer the question: Which social media marketing tactics are most effective?

Influencer Marketing: Building Your List Through Trust and Credibility

August 12, 2016

What do you think of when you hear the words “influencer marketing?”

An influencer is someone who has built up the trust and credibility of their audience in such a way that they’ll be more willing to make a purchase based on recommendation alone. We all know this scenario: Kim Kardashian tweets about a new clothing line and suddenly it’s the most popular product on the market. People go crazy when a celebrity endorses a product.

But the power of endorsements and influencers isn’t only available to big brands with celebrity contacts. In fact, any brand can work with an established influencer to jumpstart their email list building efforts.

How Influencer Marketing Is More Cost-Effective For Your Startup

July 22, 2016

Marketers are often frustrated by the increasing costs that paid searches now have as an attractive alternative to the keyword guessing game.

According to the Economic Impact Report, a recent survey by consulting group Tomoson revealed that influencer marketing yields an average return of $6.50 in revenue per $1 spent, with 13 percent of brands reporting an impressive return of $20 per $1 spent.

How to Discover & Activate Your Most Influential Customers on Social

July 5, 2016

In a world powered by the Internet, we spend more time on social networks than anywhere else online – 1.7 hours per day, on average. We’re also spending more money advertising on social media than ever before – $12.67 billion expected in 2016 in the U.S. alone.

While effectively engaging with existing and prospective customers on social networks is an important part of any brand’s digital marketing strategy, spending vast sums on social ads is not a silver bullet for success. In 2015 alone, ad blocker usage grew 41% on web browsers, and 90% on mobile devices.

Mavrck Gives Brands 5 More Ways to Tap Influencers

June 21, 2016

Boston marketing technology start-up Mavrck believes any brand’s most valuable asset is their influential customers. It took to the streets of Cannes, France today to demonstrate why.

Mavrck, a 31-employee startup launched via Techstars Boston in 2014 and backed by $8.3 million in venture capital, today released a solution that extends its influencer marketing program beyond social to other digital assets.

Called Mavrck DirectLink, the solution allows brand marketers to add an influencer marketing “layer” to an existing digital asset that consumers already interact with, such as a mobile app, e-commerce site or loyalty program.

Cannes, France: Mavrck, the leading micro-influencer marketing platform trusted by premier consumer brands, today announced DirectLink, a dynamic version of the company’s Influencer Activation Engine that can be used within a brand’s existing digital assets. With DirectLink, Mavrck is broadening its platform to power brands who have already invested in engaging digital experiences.

“Influencers have become the go-to solution for overcoming a growing list of hurdles with digital advertising – in 2016, a staggering 80 percent of marketers have invested in influencer marketing strategies,” said Lyle Stevens, CEO of Mavrck.

Unilever Returns to Cannes With a More Organized Startup Lineup

June 8, 2016

Unilever is returning to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with its second crop of top marketing-tech startups but in a more organized way, dividing honorees and sessions into five categories during the Lions Innovation sub-festival June 21-22.

Unilever’s Foundry 50 (technically 49 this year, since one needed to drop out) are plucked from 4,500 startups Unilever has reviewed over the the past two years. The new crop is divided evenly into companies focused on brand content and innovation; data, insights and personalization; engaging millennials; social impact and future of retail.

What Kind of Content do Pinterest Users Eat Up? [Infographic]

May 26, 2016

Equal parts visual search engine and social network, Pinterest is more about the discovery of ideas than it is about connecting people. Members are more likely to follow like-minded Pinners based on similar interests than the social media star of the moment – a quick search reveals that you can only follow the Kardashians by topic, they’re more likely to be pinned than be pinning.

This means that when it comes to influencer marketing, Pinterest is a bit of an anomaly. If Pinterest’s latest TV ad and Smart Feed algorithm are any indication, the network’s prioritizing search over social. Its Smart Feed algorithm prioritizes high quality pins, relevant pins, and interests pinners follow (not who) above all. Amplification to the masses depends more on optimizing for pinners’ relevant interests and the community at large than who’s pinning in this moment.

Mavrck, the leading micro-influencer marketing platform trusted by premier consumer brands, today announced the beta for its Pinterest influencer activation engine, empowering brands to discover and activate their most influential customers on Pinterest to amplify and drive engagement on a branded pin.

Today, Pinterest has more than 100 million monthly active users and over 176 million registered users, with 2M users pinning product pins every day. According to eMarketer, Pinterest is second only to Facebook as the highest driver of referral traffic and indication of intent to buy. Shopify’s analysis found that 93 percent of Pinterest users use the platform to plan purchases, and the average order value of sales coming from Pinterest ($50) is higher than on any other platform.

How to Tap Into Influencer Marketing Opportunities

April 11, 2016

Influencer marketing, or influence marketing, is not a recent practice or a novel concept. Influencer marketing is about focusing your marketing message through specific individuals who have influence over a key market segment you’re looking to target.

In traditional marketing models, marketers would focus most of their efforts on formulating and promoting mass media campaigns. Today, those models have radically changed, as you need to go beyond a sales pitch and tap into targeted audiences, efforts which can be greatly helped by tapping into an influencers credibility within communities they belong to. Influencers are not specific to a particular profession or an industry.

What Boston’s Hottest Tech Companies Eat for Office Snacks

March 21, 2016

When you spend most of your waking hours at the office, snacking becomes a necessary evil for sustaining your focus. And we all have our favorites. For some people, it’s munching loud and proud on trail mix, while for others, it’s discreetly mowing down gummy bears.

The question is: Which snacks get our local startups through the day? ezCater got us the answer. The company – which connects businesses with local caterers – surveyed the 32 companies in Round 2 of Tech Madness to see what their offices’ and execs’ favorite goodies are (and maybe even revealed something about their startup culture in the process).

Starbucks Tops Facebook in Micro-Influencer Engagement [Report]

February 23, 2016

Starbucks is the brand with the highest influence rate on Facebook, based on its engagement with micro-influencers, according to the latest data from Mavrck.

The coffee powerhouse was followed by Coca-Cola and MTV on the Average Influencer Index from the micro-influencer marketing platform, which also introduced a free tool, Fan Grader, to analyze brands’ Facebook pages and determine and engage with those pages’ top 100 micro-influencers.

What Skills Should Marketers Master in 2016?

January 15, 2016

The skills that marketers need to succeed are rapidly changing and expanding. Today it’s no longer enough to have a creative flair or a knack for data analysis or even deep expertise within a specific channel. Marketers need to broaden and deepen their proficiencies in everything from segmentation and measurement, to analytics and tech skills, to customer engagement and change management.

Here, Mavrck CEO Lyle Stevens and 13 marketing insiders, each with a unique perspective on the marketing industry, share their predictions for the skill it’s most important for marketers to master in 2016 and why.

How Retailers Are Marketing via Influencers

December 24, 2015

Most people don’t shop in isolation. They are inspired, informed and assured by others throughout the path to purchase. A slew of marketing approaches have developed to identify, activate or enable key individuals who can sway the brand preferences, buying decisions and loyalty of others. Together, they make up the influencer marketing ecosystem.

Most industries treat influencer marketing primarily as a top-of-the-funnel tool. Not the case with retail, which uses social influence throughout the path to purchase, as explored in a new eMarketer report, “Influencers in US Retail: The YouTube Stars, Reviewers and Superfans Consumers Trust.”

Influencer Marketing Startup Mavrck Raises $5M

November 13th, 2015

Mavrck, a startup that helps marketers recruit customers to create promotional content, has raised $5 million in Series A funding.

There are plenty of other companies working on influencer marketing, but Mavrck co-founder and CEO Lyle Stevens said they usually identify influencers without helping brands “activate” them, or they’re focused on how to “rent” influencers, regardless of whether or not they have any actual loyalty to a specific brand or product. Mavrck, in contrast, allows brands to work with what it calls “micro-influencers” who are already part of their customer base.

The 25 Best Small-Company Cultures in 2015

November 4th, 2015

From startups to growing businesses and established companies, having a high-performance company culture helps drive a mission, achieve goals, provides support and creates the foundation for employee growth. It provides a productive, engaged work environment that exceeds expectations and gets results.

Entrepreneur, in partnership with CultureIQ®, a culture-management software and service provider, has released its premier Top Company Cultures list. The list recognizes businesses that have successfully instilled a high-performance culture in their workplace.

Which Candy Brand Is Killing It On Facebook This Halloween?

October 30th, 2015

Tomorrow night, millions of children will surge into the streets, hands out, bags open, looking for the best candy. The few days before Halloween are the Black Fridays of candy brands and costume retailers, and this year comes with an extra bonus – Halloween on Saturday.

But candy is purchased long before it ends up in trick-or-treaters’ bags. Who won the hearts and minds of shoppers in the weeks before Halloween? Mavrck, a company specializing in social media analysis, took a look at the Facebook properties of several candy brands. Their conclusions: KitKat might have the largest number of fans, but Skittles had the most fans talking about them. And overall, M&Ms had the most engagement and influence (infographic at the end of this post).

Besides the obvious, what do M&Ms, Kit Kat and Skittles have in common? Strong social performance leading up to Halloween. Social influence marketing company Mavrck analyzed the Facebook pages of candy brands, and its findings included:

Announcing This Year’s 50 On Fire Finalists

October 14th, 2015

In just under two months the city’s hottest influencers, innovators and game-changers will convene for the fourth annual 50 on Fire, an awards event like no other. Today, we have your first look at the hot 200 finalists!

Curating the list wasn’t easy; over the past few weeks we’ve received thousands of nominations highlighting companies and individuals who are disrupting their industries and making an impact in Boston and beyond. These 200 finalists truly embody what it means to be “on fire”.

How to Inspire and Collect User-Generated Content

September 30th, 2015

If the last 10 years have taught us anything, it’s that virtually anybody can be an author, photographer, videographer, voiceover talent, or subject matter expert-thanks to ubiquitous tools like smartphones, blogs, and social media sites that allow everyday people to post and publish text, photos, video, and audio galore. Which begs the question for companies: Why not tap into these public resources more often as a free and valuable source of content for your brands and products?

Smart companies are doing exactly that, increasingly relying on user-generated content (UGC) to interest prospective and repeat customers alike with a fresh, genuine appeal that can only come organically from real people and nonprofessional content providers.

11 Must-See Digital Marketing Stats From the Past Week

September 28th, 2015

Autumn is a great season for digital marketing data, as statisticians hope to make sense of an increasingly fragmented media marketplace for brands that are looking to grab as many holidays sales in the coming weeks as possible. Here are 11 of such stats that caught our eye last week, including a timely number about ad blockers and a bevy of new data around Instagram.

Here Is an Hour-By-Hour Breakdown of When People Post on Instagram

September 23rd, 2015

Instagram on Tuesday revealed that it now has 400 million monthly users, up 100 million since the beginning of this year. And those users, many of who are millennials, post 80 million photos to the social platform every day.

So a study by Mavrck—which analyzed 1.3 million Instagram posts—should get brands’ attention. It explores, among other things, the best times of day to share a message on the visual platform.

Boston Tech Roundup: Flywire, DraftKings, Blade, & More

September 17th, 2015

DraftKings and Fleetmatics were named private and public company of the year, respectively, by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council at MassTLC’s 18th annual leadership awards gala held last night in Boston, according to a press release. The organization also picked Admetsys as the local startup to watch and named PTC’s Jim Heppelmann as CEO of the year, Wayfair’s Steve Conine as top local CTO, and Jebbit chief operating officer Jonathan Lacoste as emerging executive of the year. (Conine actually relinquished the CTO role earlier this year when the company named Jeremy Delinsky to that position.)

DraftKings, Fleetmatics Among the Top Winners at MassTLC’s Leadership Awards Gala

September 16th, 2015

DraftKings and Fleetmatics were among the top winners at MassTLC’s 18th Annual Leadership Awards Gala on Wednesday night, and a good mix of established and lesser-known tech companies shared the glow of the honors at one of Massachusetts’ top tech events. The awards gala also recognized three top executives at three Boston-area tech firms: PTC, Wayfair and Jebbit.

7 Interesting and Fun Digital Marketing Stats From the Past Week

September 14th, 2015

John Oliver is just killing 60 Minutes in online buzz, folks. There’s been fascinating data afoot for digital marketers to learn from in the last week, and we’ve identified seven particularly interesting numbers for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

Social marketing company Mavrck studied 1 million Instagram posts across 2,000 accounts. It found that for each year a user’s age increased, there was a 0.15 percent decrease in the number of followers.

Mass. is home to more than 60 marketing and advertising tech firms – here’s why

September 1st, 2015

Companies in the field of marketing and advertising technology have been in the news lately because they’re growing significantly in the Boston area. In fact, according to marketing technology startup Jebbit, the Bay State is home to more than 60 companies in the marketing and ad-tech space.

That’s largely because the Boston area breeds the kinds of candidates that companies in this space are looking for: People with analytical and technical skills who are also “great storytellers,” according to Robert Murray, president of Boston-based marketing technology firm Skyword.

Top 3 Tips to Win the 2015 Holidays

August 24th, 2015

For brands to engage they need consumer trust, and for trust to build brands must be authentic. Some brands choose celebrity endorsements as a trust factor, but one expert notes that most (92%) of consumers believe friend/family recommendations over advertising. Lyle Stevens, co-founder and CEO at Mavrck, says the human aspect is key for the upcoming holiday season.

Expert: How 2 Retailers are Winning Back-to-School

August 21st, 2015

In the race to get the most back to school dollars in the registers, retailers Macy’s and Kohl’s are winning. Mavrck co-founder and CEO Lyle Stevens breaks down what these retailers are doing to beat the competition. First, Macy’s. The company is doing a great job of engaging shoppers through social media, and that engagement is getting fans talking.

Meet BetaBoston’s ’25 under 25′ Winners for 2015

July 22nd, 2015

Congratulations to the winners of the BetaBoston 25 Most Innovative People Under 25. This year we received submissions spanning several industries including music, technology, software, social media, education, health and life sciences, and education. From this very impressive group, our editorial team selected the individuals we feel are are making their mark in 2015. Christopher Wolfel, Mavrck. Wolfel is co-founder and chief revenue officer at Mavrck…

Mavrck Beta-Testing Instagram on Influencer Activation Engine

July 21st, 2015

The Influencer Activation Engine from social influence marketing platform Mavrck is now analyzing Instagram posts in a private beta-test. Mavrck said participants in the beta-test will be able to use its algorithm-driven engine to identify Instagram users, followers and customers by age, gender, reach, location, topics of influence and recent life events, as well as rank them by average engagement per post. They can also encourage influencers…

Ad Roundup: Tools to focus on business knowledge

July 21st, 2015

First, Druva has launched the inSync Proactive Compliance tool; the new tool gives businesses the ability to look backup, restore and share data through a single platform. It also gives brands the ability to audit data, archive/search data and ensure they are compliant. “Once upon a time, data was centralized in the data center and kept compliant with data regulations and enterprise policies. The modern enterprise is mobile first, with more employees…

Once upon a time, data was centralized in the data center and kept compliant with data regulations and enterprise policies. The modern enterprise is mobile first, with more employees relying on endpoints and cloud services to get their work done, said Jaspreet Singh, CEO, Druva. “The new cloud or BYOA wave is having even a greater business impact that than the BYOD wave. The dispersed data landscape it has created, with so much data outside the firewall…

Tom’s of Maine Turns to ‘Micro-Influencers’ to Tackle Instagram

July 20th, 2015

Instagram is growing faster than Facebook or Twitter, and its engagement rates with content are far higher. But packaged-goods brands without obvious visual punch – like toothpaste or skincare products – remain largely invisible there. Now Tom’s of Maine, a natural-products brand owned by Colgate-Palmolive Co., is looking to make a visual splash without resorting to such steps as $15,000 payments to Instagram mega-influencers to post photos for their millions of followers…

7 mistakes companies are making on social right now

June 16th, 2015

Gone are the days when marketing professionals question the value of their company having a presence on social networks. Regardless of if the company is B2B, B2C, or any combination of the two – their customers are on social because EVERYONE is on social.You would think, however, that at this point we have a better understanding of what makes a successful brand social strategy. Unfortunately, companies are still getting social media marketing wrong…

Sneak Peek: 2015 Alumni Impact Nominees

June 4th, 2015

On June 16th, hundreds of influential Bostonians will convene at BostInno’s third annual State of Innovation at the Westin Waterfront.Featuring the top entrepreneurs and business leaders in Boston, State of Innovation will discover the key issues facing Boston’s startup and business communities to explore what it will take to maintain Boston as a leader in innovation. The afternoon will feature some of Boston’s most well known…

Inside Mavrck’s Evolution from Northeastern Startup to Boston High-Growth Company

June 11th, 2015

Since rebranding in November 2014, Mavrck is among Boston’s fastest-growing startups, raising $2.5M in Series A funding and cementing itself as a company that is showing us where the future of ad-tech is going. The company was originally founded as Splashscore in 2012, and a group of Northeastern University grads — including Chris Wolfel, Lyle Stevens, Shoeb Mogal and Sean Naegeli — serve as the company’s current co-founders…

What Techstars Taught Me About Marketing—27 Alumni Founders Open Up About Marketing Success

June 10th, 2015

Whether you’re running a venture backed tech startup or a dog walking business, marketing is hard and can sink your business if you don’t get it right. While some of the tactics of marketing a dog walking business might vary from a tech startup, many of the strategies are the same. Yesterday, ThriveHive was excited to announce that we will be taking our own business to the next level as part of the Techstars program…

Four Hult Boston alumni startups to watch from [Hult on BostInno]

June 9th, 2015

What do HubSpot, Intelligent.ly, Mavrck, Yesware, and Clover Food Lab all have in common? They are all built by Boston-area alums. From student entrepreneurs and the VCs who fund them, this city was built and continues to be built on its ability to attract and retain talent. We owe that ability to the strength of our ever-evolving educational community which has positioned us as a hub of innovation with nothing but room for growth moving forward…

City Spotlight: Innovation Shapes Boston’s Past and Future

May 20th, 2015

Boston always had a formidable academic scene, and now it’s on the forefront of a tech revolution. The city’s ad scene combines a polished, academic culture with a vibrant, cutting-edge vibe, making Boston a hotbed for innovation and startup creation. But for all the high-wattage brain power, you can’t talk about Boston without discussing the Patriots, the Red Sox, the Celtics or the Bruins…

Taco Bell, Moe’s offer freebies for Cinco de Mayo

May 14th, 2015

Taco Bell is offering free breakfast on Tuesday to kick off your Cinco de Mayo.Chevy’s: Chevy’s will have drink specials all day long- prices vary by location. Organizers said they hoped word of the increased patrols will spread and encourage people to use designated drivers, take cabs or find responsible ways to celebrate. Mavrck examined the Facebook followings of these brands: Corona, Jose Cuervo, Tostitos, Chi-Chi’s, Qdoba Mexican Grill…

How To Make The Most Of Your Startup Accelerator Program Experience

May 8th, 2015

Seed accelerators have been around for 10 years now and their popularity doesn’t appear to be waning any time soon. Sure, criticism for the programs themselves and the proliferation of different programs around the world have taken some wind out of the sails, but primarily, joining an accelerator program – or rather, being accepted to an accelerator – is still considered valuable and an endorsement of the concept and business model…

REPORT: Taco Bell, Avocados from Mexico Among Top Cinco de Mayo Brands on Facebook

May 5th, 2015

When Mavrck, a social marketing platform, took a look at some of the top brands in the Mexican food and drink space on Facebook, one clear contender stood out — Taco Bell. Mavrck examined the Facebook followings of these brands: Corona, Jose Cuervo, Tostitos, Chi-Chi’s, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Dos Equis, Patrón, Avocados from Mexico, Ro-tel and Taco Bell. While Taco Bell had, by far, the most Facebook fans, it was actually…

Brands get a pass for tweeting about Cinco De Mayo

May 4th, 2015

Margaritas, tequila, guacamole and fajitas. Cinco De Mayo is coming — and brands aren’t far behind. While the holiday marks the Mexican victory over France in the Battle of Puebla in 1862, it is much more widely celebrated north of the border — and no one has been more enthusiastic in their embrace than brands and advertisers. There are several brands already glomming onto the “holiday” with cheesier-than-a-quesadilla puns, no bueno español and refried hashtags…

Mavrck Launches ‘Fan Grader’ Facebook Analysis Tool

April 29th, 2015

Social media influence measurement platform Mavrck has launched a tool called Fan Grader, to track the engagement of a brand’s Facebook page, and identify its top 100 most engaged fans.Mavrck’s proprietary ‘influencer activation engine’ is used to identify and activate brands’ most influential customers across social media networks at scale. Fan Grader analyzes the last 100 posts created by a brand’s Facebook page…

Mavrck Launches Free Tool to Measure Facebook Fan Engagement

April 28th, 2015

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mavrck, the social influence marketing platform company for consumer brands, today announced major updates to Fan Grader, its free tool that measures the engagement of a brand’s Facebook page and identifies the brand’s top 100 most engaged fans. Today, U.S. consumers spend more time on social networks than email and search networks combined. Of all their social networks, Facebook most closely mirrors real-world relationships…

Five Reasons Customers Pay More Attention to Influencers Than Your Display Ads

April 17th, 2015

Marketers across all major categories are investing more heavily in social media and influence marketing this year. Some 70% will increase spend on social advertising across platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and another 70% plan to increase their spend on “organic social,” according to a new report from Salesforce. Brands also know their customers are spending more time on social networks than on email and search engines combined…

As candy fills Easter baskets Sunday, it’s time to see which confectionary brands are finding all of the Easter eggs on Facebook. Mavrck, a social marketing platform, crunched the numbers and analyzed the Facebook performance of some of the top candy brands in the world. Mavrck also highlighted some of the key stats, showing why it’s important to look beyond the like. Although M&Ms has the most fans of any of the brands tracked, the bite-sized chocolatier…

BostInno Tech Madness Bracket Is Revealed, Voting Now Open

March 11th, 2015

Our 2nd annual Tech Madness contest begins now. So let’s get right to it: Which of these 64 Boston tech companies do you think will be more valuable in five years? Cast your first round of votes below. These 64 companies were chosen from among 175 top players on the Boston tech scene. They range from massive publicly traded companies to tiny seed-stage startups. Public companies make up the top seeds and are ranked by market cap. Criteria …

Here’s A Look at All 64 Tech Madness Companies

March 16th, 2015

It’s that time of year, techies: And no, we’re not talking about basketball. Our 2nd annual Tech Madness contest is officially in full swing—and you can vote here for the local tech companies you think will be most valuable in five years. But before you get to voting, you can brush up on your knowledge of the participants below. We’ve put together a guide on all 64 Boston tech companies with details on their backgrounds, industries, products and recent fundings…

Why the Smartest Entrepreneurs Have Multiple Mentors

March 2nd, 2015

Do you have one mentor? If so, you’re doing things wrong, according to Lyle Stevens, co-founder of the social influencer marketing platform Mavrck, used by Sears and Unilever, among others. The company recently graduated from TechStars and, as a result, closed a $2.5 million Series A round of funding. None of this would have happened, Stevens says, without support from four different mentors, each with a separate area of expertise…

Top 10 Spots for Power Lunches, According to Boston Startups

February 26th, 2015

News flash: The power lunch is alive and well in Boston. You know, the meal where relationships are forged, game-changing discussions are had and deals are made. But just any old deli for cafe won’t always do for a business lunch in Boston. So the question is, what are the best Boston restaurants for startups that want to host a power lunch? A handful of companies shared their favorite spots. Jacob Wirth’s at 31 Stuart St, Theater District…

Office Envy: Mavrck’s New Party-Friendly Digs

February 16th, 2015

Work hard, play hard. That seems to be the core motto atMavrck, a Boston ad tech startup that bills itself as “every marketer’s wingman.” When I walk into the company’s new North End abode, Jay-Z’s “Tom Ford” is booming from the speaker. The devs are playing NHL Xbox on an enormous screen in the entertainment room. A ping pong table in the corner is primed for playing. Meanwhile, the kitchen is fully stocked with brews, wine and…

Here’s How 5 Startups Celebrated after They Got Funded

February 11th, 2015

Whether it’s a $500,000 seed round or an $8 million Series B, new funding marks a milestone for any startup. And it’s definitely cause for celebration. So what’s the appropriate way to party when the big check rolls in? Of course, every startup’s culture is different—and their celebration styles reflect that. From casual brews at the local watering hole to classy dinners and elaborate skiing trips, here’s how five Boston startups opted to honor the momentous occasion…

6 Boston Startups Are Showing Us Where Ad Tech Is Going

January 23rd, 2015

Companies in the ad tech sphere have had more than their share of challenges in recent years. Last fall, a number of the industry’s stocks took a plunge in response to growing concerns over the potential effectiveness of digital advertising. But that isn’t stopping new players from trying to find better—and often less intrusive—ways of marketing products. “The next big wave of mobile ad tech companies will be bigger than we’ve ever seen because they’re going to be forced…

Ecommerce Roundup

January 14th, 2015

In fact smartphone revenue increased by 111% over the 2014 holidays according to the report. MarketLive’s data also shows the importance of social; some brands say social recommendations increase by 100%… Meanwhile, Mavrck recently polled more than 500 consumers about how they hear about new products or brands. Their data shows social networks (61%) are the top spot for new product information. Both TV and blogs point less than 20% of…

Why Your Brand Doesn’t Need the Kardashians to ‘Keep Up’ with Social Marketing

January 14th, 2015

It’s no wonder marketers have placed such great emphasis on social media marketing —consumers currently spend more time on social networks than on any other site on the Web. Today, social media marketing ranges from banner ads on Facebook to activating influencers to do their job – influence! To generate social influence, some brands believe they need the Kim Kardashian of their industry to send out a tweet, hoping the celebrity’s massive following across…

5 VCs Talk About the Best Startup Pitches of 2014

December 22nd, 2014

Not all startup pitches are created equal. I just did a quick survey of five local venture capitalists to see which startup pitches from this year stood out the most. Notably, a number of the pitches did lead to investments by the VCs—reinforcing the notion that, while the pitch isn’t everything, it’s certainly a crucial step along the way to a venture deal…

Unilever’s Clear shows strategic limitations of optimizing for reach on social

December 22nd, 2014

A campaign by Unilever’s Clear shampoo brand that leveraged social word of mouth to motivate a strong mobile response to a challenge to promote healthier, more beautiful hair points to the limitations of optimizing for reach vs. influence as a strategy on mobile social. Clear leveraged Mavrck’s technology and Weber Shandwick’s creative to form the brand’s most engaged fans on social into a community that created content in…

Influencer Marketing Is Killing Santa

December 22nd, 2014

It’s the final week of the Christmas season, and the holiday shopping advertisements are flowing through my inbox faster than startup pitches. While endorsements from celebrities occasionally show up, there is one uber-influencer that seems to appear more than any other. Jolly St. Nick, the rotund and red-clothed Santa character partially popularized by Coca-Cola, has traditionally been the endorsement of choice for marketing executives in the month of December…

Boston Tech Roundup: Freight Farms, Autodesk, Mavrck, Atlas

December 19th, 2014

Startups are raising money, a small developer shop has been acquired, and the split-up of a venture capital firm motors along in this collection of recent deals around the Boston-area tech sector: —Freight Farms, a Boston-based startup that sells hydroponic vegetable-growing systems housed in shipping containers, has raised $3.7 million in new investment led by Spark Capital. The company, a 2013 graduate of the Techstars accelerator program, also offers…

Here are three Boston-area startups that got funded today

December 17th, 2014

Three Boston-area startups announced Wednesday they raised a combined $17.2 million in funding. Here’s what you need to know about their announcements: Mavrck – Company description: Boston-based Mavrck, formerly Splashscore, is a Techstars Boston startup participant that is focused on leveraging social influence for consumer brands like Sears, Unilever and New Balance. The company identifies and “activates” their most influential customers so…

Mavrck gets $2.5 million for its social media influencer program

December 17th, 2014

Recent Techstars graduate Mavrck, the social influence marketing company formerly known as Splashscore, announced this morning that it has raised $2.5 million in new funding from GrandBanks Capital.The company uses social media influence as a sort of updated take on word-of-mouth marketing. Mavrck’s software allows brands to discover their most influential customers on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and other social media networks and then leverage…

Mavrck Gets $2.5M Series A to Help Brands Identify Their Most Influential Customers

December 17th, 2014

When Mavrck pitched at Techstars Demo Day last month, co-founder Lyle Stevens shared on stage that the ad-tech startup had signed a term sheet for its Series A. On Wednesday, that Series A was formally announced, in the form of $2.5 million from GrandBanks Capital. The company rebranded in November from Splashscore to Mavrck — a name, according to fellow co-founder Chris Wolfel, that better fit the brand the team was trying to build…

“Today’s tech funding news, in one place”

December 17th, 2014

Here’s a list of today’s tech funding stories, updated as the day unfolds. Tip us here if you have a deal to share. FarmLogs grabs $10M to help farmers harness web tools and big data. Reimagining the human diet is pretty useless unless we address how we grow and harvest food, something Y Combinator-backed FarmLogs knows all about. The two-year-old startup provides farmers with web and mobile apps to help them better track and…

Term Sheet – Wednesday, December 17

December 17th, 2014

A bunch of quick notes to kick off your Wednesday. Try again Mark: I’ve been struggling a lot with what to write, or what not to write, related to information that has come to light related to the Sony hack. It’s stolen information that, in a number of cases, touches on items of interest to Term Sheet readers. For the most part, my bias is to let you find it elsewhere. Reporting something in which one party breaks confidentiality is one thing…

Mavrck snags $2.5 mln Series A from GrandBanks Capital

December 17th, 2014

Boston – December 17, 2014 – Mavrck, formerly Splashscore, today announced that it has raised a $2.5 million Series A financing round from GrandBanks Capital to fuel its aggressive growth trajectory and launch the white-label version of its social influence marketing platform. The company’s proprietary influencer activation engine makes Mavrck the only solution that enables brands to identify and activate their most influential customers across social networks at scale…

“Mavrck – The Digital Marketer’s Wingman”

December 17th, 2014

Mavrck, who today announced $2.5M Series A funding from GrandBanks Capital, has one of the best “ah-ha” moments I’ve heard to date. Lyle Stevens, Co-Founder & CEO, was leading an engineering team at Raytheon when he went home for a family holiday gathering. During his stay his younger relatives had a full-blown debate (argument) about who was the better “troll” on Facebook. Teenagers being teenagers, his cousins had created fake Facebook profiles and…

Mavrck Closes $2.5M Series A From GrandBanks for Social-Marketing Tech

December 17th, 2014

Mavrck, formerly Splashscore, has raised a $2.5 million Series A financing round from GrandBanks Capital to fuel its growth and launch a white-label version of its social-influence marketing platform. The Boston company said it would use the money to accelerate product development on various social networks and to expand the company’s marketing, sales and engineering teams. Mavrck is currently working with more than 20 brands such as…

9 Essential Traits Startup Founders Seek in New Hires

October 25th, 2014

When interviewing with a startup, job seekers need to consider that the founders are looking for someone who will best complement their recipe for success. Startups create millions of jobs each year — so what does this mean for job seekers? While it’s true that startups offer a wealth of job opportunities, the startup lifestyle isn’t for everyone, and not everyone is a fit for every up-and-coming business. If you ask any successful startup founder about hiring habits…

5 Hacks for Managing Your Company’s Facebook Page

October 24th, 2014

It’s no secret that Facebook changes its platform regularly. What makes this challenging for many page administrators is that the social media site doesn’t issue big announcements every time it changes something. This means it’s up to users to discover new functions and workarounds for the platform and then to spread the word. Luckily, there are plenty of people who happily share their favorite hacks. Here are five tips that can help you manage your company’s Facebook page better…

The 12 Luckiest Startups In Boston

August 15th, 2014

Ah, the relentless cadence of Techstars. All over the world, every year, from London to Seattle, its waves of ambitious startups and inventors seem to rise and surge with the inevitably of the tides. Its entrepreneurs march in step through its bootcamps to the rhythm of the seasons. It’s an exclusive club – only about 1% of startups that apply wind up making it into the program – and over 90% that complete its courses prove their powers by surviving. The payout is…